France's embattled Chirac hit by the blues - ally

PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) Jacques Chirac is down in the dumps, a conservative ally today said, voicing concern about the French president who has been politically hurt by youth riots, labour protests and his gaffe-prone prime minister.

The 73-year old president has come under pressure from members of his own UMP party to sack Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin after his protege denounced the opposition leader as a coward on Tuesday, setting off a political firestorm.

The president has not yet commented on the latest row to swamp his government and Paul-Henri Cugnenc, a UMP deputy, said Chirac did not appear as vibrant as in the past.

''You can see a certain amount of tiredness in him, which is astonishing because before he was always hyper-active,'' said Cugnenc, who is also a senior doctor at a Paris hospital.

''I think he is a little bit depressed ... it's a case of the blues in the popular sense of the word, not a medical depression requiring treatment,'' he told Le Parisien daily.

Chirac's health has become an issue of debate ever since he was secretly admitted to hospital last September for a blood vessel problem that affected his vision and caused headaches.

Although doctors have since given him a clean bill of health, Chirac's specific condition has remained vague.

Chirac should have celebrated a high point in his presidency this week, when he inaugurated Paris's ''Musee du Quai Branly'', a giant new museum on tribal art that he has championed.

But the glamorous opening ceremony was utterly overshadowed by Villepin's ''cowardice'' barb against Socialist leader Francois Hollande, which has dominated the newspaper headlines.

SADNESS Le Figaro daily quoted one minister who attended a reception at the Elysee presidential palace on Tuesday as saying there was ''a lot of sadness'' in Chirac's eyes.

Chirac's popularity ratings have slid in recent months and commentators say that after more than 11 years in office, he is very unlikely to seek another term in next year's election.

But some allies say the conservative bloc risks losing the vote whoever stands because of Villepin's confrontational style of politics and have urged Chirac to axe his ally before the July 14 national holiday that kicks off the summer recess.

Segolene Royal, the Socialist frontrunner for the 2007 election, added pressure on Chirac today, saying France's voice in the world had become ''inaudible''.

''Jacques Chirac's nice speeches on human rights and the environment are not being applied. This is ridiculing our country and ruining its credibility,'' she told Le Monde daily in one of the first outlines of her foreign policy proposals.

Villepin became prime minister in June 2005 but his star has waned dramatically in recent months following widespread rioting in the suburbs, a failed bid to loosen up employment laws and accusations he tried to smear his own interior minister.

Villepin himself has played down calls for him to quit from within his own parliamentary majority.

''I don't think that one should confuse the reactions from here and there on the margins with the political reality,'' he told reporters today.

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